


le morte d'Arthur

by TolkienGirl



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Redemption, arthurian legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 20:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18724198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TolkienGirl/pseuds/TolkienGirl
Summary: Death is a long way from freedom.





	le morte d'Arthur

Death is a long way from freedom.

Tony is a long way from death.

 

_In four years, Morgan is going to ask you, "Daddy, can I have a star?"_

_And then in five years, you're going to die like one._

 

Iron Man doesn't do interviews. That's not the crazy part. The crazy part—or at least Iron Man of any number of years before would have called it so, would have called it absolutely bat-shit—is that nobody is asking for one.

ABC, CBS, NBC, _RIP._

The major networks are down.

The major networks are down and the newspapers have mostly folded. The _Times—_ New York, L.A., and London—they are a-changing.

 

"I mean, I guess the good part," Tony says to Pepper, "Is—it doesn't matter if I miss it. It's only ever going to matter if someone else does."

Pepper doesn't stop chopping onions. She's got a great dicing pattern going; could have been a chef. Could have been anything she damn well pleased.

Tony's always known that. Used to beat himself up about it. Now, mostly, he's just thankful.

Pepper asks, "What would you do then?"

"I'd tell him that all applications go through you, and then you'd veto it." He kisses the tip of her nose, and she scrunches her nose and her cheeks together. He can count—has counted—every one of her freckles.

See, he's lying, but it's the kind of lie that makes the world go round.

The world, or what's left of it.

 

Peter was heavy in his arms before he was dust.

(So real. It felt _so real_.)

 

This is the way he picked up the pieces: he ran. He made sure to take Pepper with him, this time. Tony isn't twenty-five or even thirty-five. He knows exactly what he has to lose, because he has lost it.

 

_"Morgoona." She's pouting. "You always call me Morgoona."_

_"Well, kiddo," you say, "It's just from a fairytale. A legend. About a powerful sorceress."_

_"Am I? A sork...a sorceress?"_

_"Well you've laid quite a spell on me."_

_"What's a spell."_

_"Magic." You wave your hands, and she waves her hands, and you—have never_ loved—anyone—

_—quite like this._

_"I have magic?"_

_"Yeah, kiddo. You do."_

 

There's a king in the legend, too. He's a hero and a fool and most stories are written about him dying. The holy grail doesn't really belong to him. His marriage fails. 

(He pulls the sword out of the stone when no one else can.)

 

Peace. Peace has a lot in common with grief, in that it keeps him very still and quiet, in that it makes him want to stare at a lake.

Peace is different from grief, in that he doesn't want it to end—even if it has to.

 

"If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."

 _God,_ he has missed them. Maybe it was never about missing _it_ , maybe it was always about the people. Steve and his hero-glory, Nat and her honest eyes. Maybe this is why Fury thought that a band of mismatched hearts, a ring of not-quite-metal, was the right way forward. Maybe Fury had a point, while Fury lived. 

It's alright, it's alright, it's going to be alright. There's a lot of metal in his chest and a lot of hope in the future, if the future is something he can save.

 

Pepper knows him so well. That's why she should have left, and that's also why she didn't.

_Not that it's a competition..._

_But would you be able to rest?_

There's a little girl upstairs with his eyes and Pepper's smile, and her world needs to be better than Tony's ever was. 

Tony's won and lost enough times to know that sometimes, they feel like the same thing.

 

Death is a long way from freedom.

Tony closes the gap—

—only not for himself.


End file.
